Best movies like Matthew's Days
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Matthew's Days? Leverage your expertise to help others toward movies and tv shows you've watched previously that may also preoccupy them. Support increasing the cohort of people bringing up videos among each other. We appreciate your contribution!
Plot Summary:
A man who is socially inept and out of touch with the world lives with his sister in a small farmhouse. The overly sensitive man lives off his hard-working sibling, taking odd jobs as he gets them to secure his meager earnings. When he brings home a woodcutter from the forest, the sister and the newcomer fall in love. Terrified over a life without his sister, the man can't cope and decides to kill himself. This depressing tale of alienation, doubt and uncertainty was the Polish entry at the Cannes Film Festival in 1968.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 489
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Matthew's Days (1968):
Similar in 77%
Saviour Square (2006)
Plot Summary:
A story of a married couple with two children, whose housing problems, the man's infidelity and the woman's fragility lead the family to destruction.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, compassionate
Similar in 89%
Memoirs of a Sinner (1986)
Plot Summary:
Based on an 18th Century novel by James Hogg. Tells the story of a young man whose memories, recounted after death, are supposed to be a series of wrong moral choices ending up with him killing himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: gothic, gothic horror, baroque, grotesque
Similar in 79%
Konopielka (1982)
Plot Summary:
Kaziuk, a stubborn peasant and his pregnant wife live in a backwood village, unaffected by the civilization. The village is once visited by a couple of wanderers, and strange things start to happen afterward. A new schoolteacher is sent to the area. She stirs erotic fantasies in Kaziuk. In a stir of frustration Kaziuk cuts down a family tree - a sacrilegious act in the eyes of his family. Going a step further and using a scythe for cutting the rye instead of a sickle brings the whole village against him.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 886
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Lions (2012)
Plot Summary:
Deep in the forest a group of five friends wander around like a lion herd. Lost in their word games, they play and seduce each other while going back and forth into adulthood territory, in a desperate search to avoid their already written story.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Netherlands, France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: gothic, experimental, apocalyptic, crying, allegory, weird, fable
Similar in 86%
At the First Breath of Wind (2002)
Plot Summary:
Using few words and gorgeous imagery, this is a poetic painting of a family, each in their own space on an August afternoon.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 77%
How to Be Loved (1963)
Plot Summary:
An actress travels from Warsaw to Paris and during the trip reflects on the last few years of her life. It goes back to the German occupation and her hiding of a fellow actor who has supposedly killed a collaborator. He is weak and a bit cowardly, but suffers most from not having any audience for his vanity, ego and supposed bravery. After the war he leaves her but finds out that he has been accused of cowardice. He finally commits suicide and she clears herself of a collaboration charge and eventually becomes a popular actress.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 720
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: road movie
Similar in 89%
Miss Nobody (1996)
Plot Summary:
A devout Catholic peasant girl is corrupted by two new friends when her family moves to the city. An allegory of traditional Polish values under threat from materialism and decadence in the post-Communist era.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 480
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Death of John L. (1988)
Plot Summary:
Zbigniew Gasior, a thirty year old singer, is a youth idol. Despite fame, money and success with the ladys, he can't neglect the emptiness in his life. The shattered dreams of his friends are not really a help, to ease his existential pains.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 17
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Time to Die (2007)
Plot Summary:
An impressionistic, black-and-white portrait of the day-to-day of a nonagenarian woman as she experiences the final act of her life. Danuta Szaflarska stars as Aniela, who lives in a massive yet rapidly-deteriorating wooden house, filled with souvenirs and treasures of eras gone by. Aniela runs into conflict in her dealings with others, particularly a nasty neighbor who sees her property as an eyesore and wants to do everything in his reach to buy it up and tear it down, and her married adult son, who - though kindly - triggers paranoia within Aniela (she cannot help but believe that he is scheming and planning to wheedle the property away from her). Driven aback by these individuals, Aniela finds one of her only sources of comfort and reassurance in her daily talks with her dog, Fila - and develops a great affinity for spying on the neighbors' doings whenever boredom creeps in.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 79%
How Far, How Near (1972)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 303
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surreal
Similar in 86%
The Axiliad (1986)
Plot Summary:
A young, idealistic poet, turns his back on civilization and goes to small, backwood village, rents a bed in the house of an old woman, and decides to make his living as a lumberjack. Soon he realizes that the world around him is far from perfect.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Behind The Wall (1971)
Plot Summary:
Jan is a young assistant professor in chemistry and a workaholic, Anna is an unsuccessful science writer who turns to Jan for advice and human compassion, but Jan, absorbed with his career, remains immune to Anna's clumsy efforts to pierce his defenses.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 56 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
30 Door Key (1991)
Plot Summary:
A young writer in 1939 Warsaw faces the conflict of acting his age or relapsing into childhood during the brink of World War II. Based on the famous novel Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 396
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland, UK, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: mindfuck
Similar in 84%
Hospital of the Transfiguration (1979)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1943 in a mental asylum in the country. But this is an unusual hospital: there are several incurable schizophrenic cases, staff is bit strange and a writer has voluntarily entered the clinic because he is "peculiar" and a drug addict. Then the German Gestapo arrives. The commandant asks for the list of patients, sorts out the "Aryan" doctors from the others on a return trip, and herds everyone into trucks for evacuation to the extermination camps. A young doctor momentarily escapes by covering himself under a pile of laundry in the basement, and then escapes to the woods just as the Nazi soldiers appear.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 426
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Sun Rises Once a Day (1972)
Plot Summary:
Directed by Henryk Kluba.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 84
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: folk tale
Similar in 77%
Spiral (1978)
Plot Summary:
In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 86%
A Lonely Woman (1987)
Plot Summary:
The first motion picture film by Agnieszka Holland about loneliness, longing for affection, and misfortune. Irena, a postal delivery worker, is struggling with a inadequate housing, a drunk neighbor who wants to take her place, and a heartless boss, knowing that the whole day at work, she is leaving her young son. But the worst is the loneliness, exacerbated by her single mother status. She meets a crippled pensioner Jacek, who appears to be the key to her happiness, but tragedy continues to strike.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Apple Tree of Paradise (1986)
Plot Summary:
Girls no more, four heroines emerge into womanhood with a more clear-eyed outlook on life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 49
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Regina (1990)
Plot Summary:
The beautiful, educated and independent Regina hears from her partner Tiit that he has decided to marry a young pregnant girl. Then, she gets an inheritance - a house in a small borough. There's both a reason and an opportunity for a life-change so Regina moves away from the capital. She cannot handle the house and garden on her own and while looking for help, finds Ants, a skilled handyman, yet also a drunkard. Because he's the best she could find in the borough, she decides to marry him, but have children with abstinent and healthy men. Her plan works until something she didn't take into account appears.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Kimen (1974)
Plot Summary:
On a small green island out in the sea, they live in harmony - until a stranger comes. Like a hurricane this rocks the small society, and a killing lets all hidden forces loose.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Law and the Fist (1964)
Plot Summary:
At the end of World War Two, Polish people move to the western lands vacated by Germans. But some ruthless profiteers pose as government representatives and intend to make off with loot from a deserted town they took over. One honest man stands up against them because he believes these goods belong to the people.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Spring Night (1976)
Plot Summary:
A story of two siblings who for the first time spend a night without their parents, and are visited by strangers who ask for room for the night. Based on the novel by Norwegian writer Tarjei Vesaas.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Nana (2011)
Plot Summary:
Nana is 4 years old and lives in a stone house beyond the forest. Back from school, a late afternoon, all she finds is silence in the house. A journey into the darkness of her childhood. The world from her height.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, fairy tale, offbeat
Similar in 90%
The Scar (1976)
Plot Summary:
After discussions and dishonest negotiations, a decision is taken as to where a large new chemical factory is to be built and Bednarz, an honest Party man, is put in charge of the construction. He used to live in the small town where the factory is to be built, his wife used to be a Party activist there, and he has unpleasant memories of it. But he sets to the task in the belief that he will build a place where people will live and work well. His intentions and convictions, however, conflict with those of the townspeople who are primarily concerned with their short-term needs. Disillusioned, Bednarz gives up his post.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Crows (1994)
Plot Summary:
A thin child of about 10, nicknamed "Crow" because she mimics the bird, has no friends and rejects a teacher's hug. At home, she is left on her own, her mom locks her out while entertaining a lover or is asleep. One morning, Crow sees a chubby, cherubic child hugged by both parents as the father leaves for work. When the toddler is left alone, Crow lifts her through the fence and kidnaps her. That day, Crow tries to mother the child, alternately playing with and scolding her, taking her to the beach, leaving shore in a boat, pushing her into the sea in a pique, and eventually carrying the sleeping child back home. Crow returns to her own mother and asks for affection.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 693
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: surreal
Similar in 84%
The Birch Wood (1970)
Plot Summary:
Takes place in a prewar Poland. A tubercular young man comes to stay with his brother on a farm. He is in love with life and constantly plays 1930's music on a piano. He gets involved with his brother's problems and also becomes the lover of a simpleminded farm girl. The brother's dead wife may have had an affair with the hired man who is to marry the farm girl. His daughter will not confirm his suspicions. But the brother's death leads to his acceptance of the past, forgiving his wife's memory and making up with his little daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 937
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 88%
Johnnie Waterman (1993)
Plot Summary:
On the road wandering minstrel finds a mare, which, upholstered and sickly, is dying. He buries mare and casts a curse in the village where the animal was tortured. In the village lives Jańcio, a philosopher, a man loving life and his young wife, Weronka. Jańcio lives in harmony with God and is not expecting that he will be put to the test by him. He is convinced he has the power to make miracles. He leaves his pregnant wife, and goes to see the world, promising to return before the due date.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Mandala (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film follows the differing lives of two Buddhist monks in Korea. By following their lives and their interaction throughout the film, Im creates a contemplation of the nature of individualism, religious belief and enlightenment.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 380
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Tambourine, Drum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Forty-five year old Yekaterina Artemovna has a hard life. She lives in a small mining town where she works as a librarian and, like her only friend and colleague, rents a little room in a project. Yekaterina has difficulties making ends meet and sells off some of the library's books illegally in a nearby station. One day, a man with a strong sense of civic duty, wearing a naval uniform, returns one of these books to the library, apparently without recognizing it was Yekaterina who had actually sold him the book. She falls in love with this newcomer and, when he moves in with her, the monotony of her daily life seems over. When her father hands over an apartment to her, it seems the fates are smiling down on her. But this happiness is suddenly brought to an end when her lover discovers her illicit trade in books and leaves her for her friend. Yekaterina can bear it and decides to pursue vengeance.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, contemplative
Similar in 86%
Edi (2002)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy